PeakOil is You
Book: Cyber War
Re: Book: Cyber War
by davep » Wed 25 Mar 2015, 03:10:10
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')o. 1 vulnerability of crypto-security is the USER, 2nd passphrases, 3rd overconfidence, 4th trust in the (hardware/software) producer, 5th believing backdoors are No. 1
The true answer is "it depends". That's what threat modeling is all about. But I agree that the user tends to be number one due to the various social engineering threats, spear phishing etc and also insider fraud.
What we think, we become.
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davep - Senior Moderator
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Re: Book: Cyber War
by davep » Wed 25 Mar 2015, 03:40:09
Interesting link on attacks on US power grid (both physical and cyber) http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/03/24/power-grid-physical-and-cyber-attacks-concern-security-experts/24892471/
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')bout once every four days, part of the nation's power grid — a system whose failure could leave millions in the dark — is struck by a cyber or physical attack, a USA TODAY analysis of federal energy records finds...
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')bout once every four days, part of the nation's power grid — a system whose failure could leave millions in the dark — is struck by a cyber or physical attack, a USA TODAY analysis of federal energy records finds...
What we think, we become.
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davep - Senior Moderator
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Re: Book: Cyber War
by vox_mundi » Sat 28 Mar 2015, 13:31:55
Who (Specifically) is Behind the NSA Mass Surveillance Program?
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')“The NSA could have installed its intercept equipment at the nation’s fiber-optic cable landing stations. . . . If the NSA had taken that route, it would have been able to limit its interception of electronic communications to international/international and international/domestic communications and exclude domestic/domestic communications. Instead the NSA chose to put its intercept equipment at key junction points . . . thereby giving itself access to purely domestic communications.”
Sworn testimony of NSA employee and electronic intelligence expert William Binney, July 2012
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')“The NSA could have installed its intercept equipment at the nation’s fiber-optic cable landing stations. . . . If the NSA had taken that route, it would have been able to limit its interception of electronic communications to international/international and international/domestic communications and exclude domestic/domestic communications. Instead the NSA chose to put its intercept equipment at key junction points . . . thereby giving itself access to purely domestic communications.”
Sworn testimony of NSA employee and electronic intelligence expert William Binney, July 2012
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ''). . . the individual liberties preserved in the U.S. Constitution were no longer a consideration. It was at that time that the NSA began to implement the group of intelligence activities now known as the President’s Surveillance Program (“PSP”). While I was not personally read into the PSP, various members of my Thin Thread team were given the task of implementing various aspects of the PSP. They confided in me and told me that the PSP involved the collection of domestic electronic communications traffic without . . . privacy protections . . . . I resigned from the NSA in late 2001. I could not stay after the NSA began purposefully violating the Constitution.”
Sworn testimony of William Binney, July, 2012
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]The sheer size of [its electronic storage] capacity indicates that the NSA is not filtering personal electronic communications such as email before storage but is, in fact, storing all that they are collecting. The capacity of NSA’s planned infrastructure far exceeds the capacity necessary for the storage of discreet, targeted communications or even for the storage of the routing information from all electronic communications. The capacity of NSA’s planned infrastructure is consistent, as a mathematical matter, with seizing both the routing information and the contents of all electronic communications.
Sworn testimony of William Binney, July, 2012
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')s we walk through this analysis, we should constantly keep in mind that the NSA is a branch of the military; and, as such, its command and control ultimately falls under the executive branch of the US government.
So, to conceive, budget, and initiate the program, the individuals in questions would necessarily have to 1) represent very powerful interests. No ordinary private citizen could bring about such a program, and neither would it serve any rational purpose for any ordinary citizen to direct public agencies to spy on themselves. (It is important to constantly ask ourselves: whose interest does the operation of a massive public surveillance program most truly serve, if not the public?)
The individuals responsible would also need to have, 2), a special focus upon, and access to, the executive branch of the government, as such a program can only function under presidential authority.
And the individuals in question, 3), must be capable of exercising powerful influence over the course of multiple administrations, even irrespective of party affiliation. It would also be extremely helpful for their purposes if the individuals in question had strong influence over the media, in order to keep the program hidden in the first place, obscure the outright illegality of it after its discovery, minimize the danger it represents to democracy, forestall any narrowly-focused reportorial investigation, and quickly bury the NSA’s activities under a tidal wave of trivial irrelevancies.
Which brings us initially to ... The Domestic Security Alliance Council, the FBI and the Business Roundtable
